english summary
Ommuurde Tuin
The Ommuurde Tuin is a beautiful 1-hectare garden at Oranje Nassau’s Oord estate between Renkum and Wageningen. We are part of a network of farmers and movements that demonstrate it is possible to farm without chemicals nor artificial fertilizers, and it can be done in connection with the local community and dedication to support the flourishing of the land. The Ommuurde tuin is a space to learn, celebrate, experience the beauty of diversity, feel the roots beneath our feet, connect to ourselves and each other, and a space to simply breathe. We organize events, courses, and educational activities throughout the year. Visit our website, stop by for a chat, or join a guided tour to learn more!
Community
The team are stewards of the land of the community. We don’t just want to share food—we want to build lasting community. As an agroecological project we know that community also helps sustain life. That’s why we organize regular events throughout the year for all harvest members. You can come together, share meals and stories, and enjoy the garden as a group. You are always welcome in the garden to volunteer; you can also come by and have a nourishing meal, cake, or a drink made all in our own kitchen from our garden —harvest members receive a 10% discount.
More than a vegetable box
With your contribution, you support local farmers, strengthen the local economy, help keep our landscape resilient and alive, and be part of the movement that shows it is possible to produce food in an agroecological manner in a financially sustainable manner . Together, we invest energy in a place where people can learn and recharge, where biodiversity thrives, the soil becomes more fertile, and where we help support the movements to bring healthy and fair agricultural practices within the Netherlands and throughout Europe.
How do we grow?
We farm in an agroecological way: working with nature, cultivating by hand with great crop diversity and deep respect for the land.
- We do not use pesticides or artificial fertilizers
- We use homemade bokashi compost and 100% plant-based nutrients
- For 28 years we have built a living, healthy, nutrient-rich soil—you can taste the difference
- We store CO₂ in the soil
- We use minimal fossil fuels because we work mainly by hand
- We manage the garden edges to increase biodiversity
- The garden contains more than 400 varieties of vegetables and herbs
- We maintain a cultural-historic landscape and train young farmers
- We use permanent beds
- we do not plough
- We practice crop rotation,
- We work only with green manures. We do not use animal manure.
We also implement permaculture principles that create great planting diversity, including food forest edges and edible shrubs and trees in the hedgerows along the east and south sides of the garden.
Support your local farmers – What is CSA?
Together, as a community, we can support a fair and healthy way of farming.
The landscape of conventional agriculture looks like:
- The concentration of power in supermarket chains has led to low vegetable prices which leaves farmers with low income.
- Little support and incentives to small farms and farms that are pesticide-free and place value on monocultures rather than biodiversity
- There is a common in agricultural industry to pay workers unfairly exploitative practices
We want to work differently. In order to do so we work according to the CSA model (Community Supported Agriculture). In a CSA model, harvest members commit at the beginning of the season and pay in advance for the entire year’s harvest. Therefore farmers and members share both abundance and risk of food production. So in a very dry year, if part of the harvest fails, everyone receives slightly less. In a highly productive year, everyone shares in the abundance—at the same price agreed upon at the start.
The CSA model helps farms like us by:
- directly connecting to you as a consumer instead of relying on corporations.
- gives us income security and guaranteed sales, allowing us to plan, invest, and focus fully on cultivation.
The Team
In order to sustain the future of the Ommurde Tuin, for another 28 years, as of 2026, we have become a VOF. This means five of the workers are owners. This allows for a garden structure that can bring care and attention to all parts of the farm. We practice consensus based decision making and are all invested in the wellbeing history and future of the garden.
Solidarity-based payment
At the Ommuurde Tuin, we work with solidarity-based pricing. This means there are different price options depending on income. What people pay for their harvest share determines whether we as farmers earn a lower or higher income.